dark clouds on the horizon
by aleushadrake
Summary: something has changed since maya spent that moment alone with mordecai. a continuation of 'calm before the storm'


Dark clouds on the horizon

Weeks have passed since she was left alone with him. He hasn't changed, he has not begun treating her more gently, they still only see each other when they are stationed together for security. No special effort is made to see her. It is a courtesy. A kindness she is smart enough to return. The option to speak to him with absolutely no reason at all is there, the simple need for company that is not so noisy, so obnoxious. The option is there, although she doesn't take it.

While he does not not look at her in a different light, that much is not returned. In truth that short time left alone with him have given her great deal of new insight on the world at large. It lifted a vast and weighty burden from her shoulders, something that compelled a change at the very root of herself.

The first to see this change was Axton. Her way of moving in battle, her stubborn fighting style had been something of hers that he so greatly admired. To him she was a born soldier, not taken and made.

This was observed a few weeks after having met her, the only female on their makeshift team. Of course he was observing her, his motives for observing her slowly began to change gears after a few moments talking with Salvador. Who had said it offhandedly, not really thinking about it.

" a strong woman like that will be a good mother one day"

She seemed nervous when he got too close to her. Not physically, she'd thrown his arm over her shoulder and dragged him back to safety on numerous occasions, she had even acted as field medic and plucked bullets out of various holes. Maya had sewn him back together and wiped his blood on the side of her pants before taking her gun back into arms and running back into the fray. No it was a different closeness that seemed to put her off, keeping her further at bay.

Now when he watched her perform as a medic he imagined her wiping the dirt off a child's skinned knee. The musings left him staring at her far too intensely for far too long, she would look back at him with a slight frown and slap him on the side of his head.

"snap out of it you idiot- get back in there!"

Often times after missions Axton would watch her clean up her own injuries of which there were many,they never looked like small wounds either. Watching her in the fray was bizarre, a tank with a seemingly endless pain tolerance. Or maybe she just had a very strong poker face.

She would fight til her shield failed and phase lock anything left until she could reload and start all over again. Maya never stepped backward only forward. She never gave them an inch of give always taking ground advancing on bandits psychos skags and whatever else Pandora could throw at her.

Lately though, he watched her step out of the way. Dodge and roll, her movements more fluid. Now she did not take a hit unless it was unavoidable, she would even flinch and hide til her shield recharged. What changed? What happened while he wasn't watching her... while she was alone in that room... with him.

The image is there ingrained in his minds eye, forever at the forefront. Maya sitting in Mordecais lap, sleeping soundly, her long curved eyelashes twinkling with moisture. Most bothersome was the way her hands laid on his chest gently gripping the front of the long red scarf that winds about his torso. She held him as if she was afraid he would disappear.

Yes, Mordecai is strong in his own way, clever and hard to beat. But what makes him someone she would go to in a time of need? They barely spoke at all before that, that much has hardly changed. The only addition is a passing wave in the mornings from Maya, it is only returned with a small nod.

At this moment Axton glares with blinding fury at the empty bed across from his bunk. The one that's never made, where Mordecai sleeps when he stays at headquarters. However at night, he's usually out, with that flask that never seems to empty. Is that what smells like whiskey? Or is that smell just embedded in his skin.

How could she lay on him? How could she ignore that smell? He always smells like that,pfft.

Axton angrily rolls onto his back, he places his hands behind his head and listens to sound of Mayas sheets rustling as she tosses about in her usual fitful sleep. He closes his eyes pretending to sleep when he hears soft footsteps echoing up the stairs, the sound gets very close and stops.

"chica"

Its already two thirty a.m. What the fuck was he doing out there? Axton lets his eyes open just a sliver, enough to see Mordecai gently shake Maya's shoulder.

"Chica- you cold?"

She mumbles as she pushes herself into a sitting position and look at him with bleary eyes.

" nah- I dunno maybe-"

Mordecai snorts at her late night intellect then taps her shoulder again before she can lay back down.

"hmm?"

" go on, get your blanket and go lay in my bed. Okay."

"nnn?"

"whatta bowt you?"

" I'll be fine, the couch is fine."

"nope"

"huh?"

"your bed kay, you sleep in it."

"chica I-"

"nnnn- thenn share. You're warm too.. we stay cold okay?"

Mordecai takes off his goggles to look at her clearly while he translates her sleepy sentences in his head. Maya stares at him with heavy eyelids and extended blinks, occasionally tipping her head forward.

"okay chica , you win. Now go lay down, I gotta talk to lil-"

"hurry you're cold"

He raises an eyebrow at her not really wanting to argue as he helps her pick up her thin blanket.

"okay I'm cold-"

As she sets her feet down on the cement floor her brow furrows and she looks at him bewildered.

"you are?"

A moment to consider what she might have meant is taken while Mordecai grips her elbow and helps her stumble over to his bed.

"warm, I am warm- I'll hurry up and come keep you warm alright?"

She flops onto his mattress like a dead thing mumbling as he tosses both his blanket and hers over her.

"don get lost..."

Afterward Mordecai leaves the room, taking a pocket full of stolen data drives over to Lilith.

Once he's out of sight and earshot Axton opens his eyes and watches as Maya tangles herself in the blankets, tossing this way and that. He always wondered what it was that plagued her dreams and keeps her on edge. The one time he asked about it, she just looked at him and said nothing. Her eyes boared into him like venom seeping into the core of his being. It didn't occur to him even remotely that the question was too personal and not really a topic open to discussion.

When he had asked, it was not to offend her, he genuinely wanted to know what it was that kept her thrashing in her sleep. The way her brow furrowed and her breathing hiked- he knew whatever it was terrified her. Something scared her and she wouldn't tell him. It was those times when she became skittish around him, when he wanted to know things. A moment later Mordecai walked through the room sighing at Maya as he went, a few minutes of running water later and he came back again. This time wearing only a greyish shirt and boxers. The rest of his clothes were clumped under his arm before he tossed them in a heap beside his bed.

Mordecai sat down on the edge of the bed and simply watched her before he laid down and shifted until her head was on his chest. He pressed his hand gently to her cheek and whispered.

"Sshhh, you need to calm down... shh."

He rolled onto his side and pulled her close, lightly running his fingers through her short hair.

"_I'm sorry"_

Axton couldn't hear what it was they where saying to each other, but he hated the way Maya seemed to let herself be held. The way that damn bastard cooed to her so gently, the way his fingers would glide through her hair.

What he hated most was the effect it had.

Her muscles would slack, her brow unfurled and the sound of her breathing would slow. She was calm now, sleeping peacefully with her ear over his heart listening to the lulling rhythm of its continuous and steady beat.

When morning came Maya pushed herself into a sitting position and stared curiously at Mordecai.

"mmm?"

" Moxxi has a mission for me today, so I should get going"

"mmm hhmm"

Mordecai shifts and rolls onto his back so she can climb over him, which she does, her face turning slightly pink as she throws her leg over his lap to reach the floor. She walks over to her bed, picks up her suit and pillow.

"WAKE UP!"

Mordecai watches sleepily as Maya repeatedly slams her pillow against Axtons shoulder. Axton jerks out of far from restful sleep ready to yell at whoever woke him up, only to find a rather refreshed Maya grinning widely at him. Hard to be mad when the first thing you see is that cheeky grin.

" come on get up get dressed! Moxxi has work for us!"

"im up im up.!"

Axton places his feet on the floor, scratches his head and finds Mordecai laughing at his unfortunate wake up call.

" get UP!"

Maya whips the pillow out from under Salvador's head and slaps his face with it.

"oi! Puta madre!"

His string of Truxican curses is punctuated by Maya's loud cackling as she darts off to the showers. Mordecai snorts audibly before rolling onto his side and going back to sleep. Salvador angrily wiggles into his pants and grumbles at no one specific.

"since when the hell is she so springy in the damn morning?"

Almost half an hour later they find zero standing outside the bar waiting for them. He raises a palm to them,insinuating for them to stop. He would speak but Salvador argued until he agreed no poetry til at least 8 in the morning. With his other hand he held out two scraps of paper, one with an a the other with an s. Apparently they would be doing their missions separately today. Axton grumbled as he headed out to the dust to see Ellie and Salvador headed off to only god knows where.

Maya found herself just standing in front of the bar all by herself and wondered why it was that she didn't get called away. Now that she's standing here she finds that she doesn't really want to talk to Moxxi. Much less spend this time alone with her, now when she thinks about Moxxie all she remembers is that look of disappointment on Mordecai's face. It really isn't her business and besides, Morty said it wasn't her fault anyway. No point getting pissy when she doesn't know what happened.

As she strolls in she finds Moxxi wiping down the bar top, the rest of the place unusually vacant. Sitting on top of several tables are various sizes of shipping boxes, leaning against the wall is a mop broom and various bottles of brain cell killing cleaning fluids.

"crap"

Moxxi looks over to Maya almost not seeing her for a moment, when her vision focuses and shes that flustered expression on Maya's face she walks around the dark wood counter to greet her.

"I'm sorry sugar, nothing fancy I just..."

Moxxi sighs and looks around, anywhere but at Maya's young beautiful well rested face.

" I just need some help around here."

Maya stares at this woman, with her sullen expression and tries to match it to the one printed on all the fliers. On the pizza boxes and in the pictures that Marcus thinks no one knows he has.

" yea, okay. What do you want me to do?"

" Just stack up the chairs on the tables, and sweep while I restock the bar okay sugar?"

Moxxi doesn't even look at Maya when she says these things, she simply walks over to one of the tables, popping open one of the boxes that sit closest to the edge. With a huff and the decision that she doesn't want to be here all day, so she she moves quicker than she really needs to , flipping chairs upside down and setting them on tabletops. Moxxi blinks and finds herself gawking at the way Maya clears the floor and begins sweeping the bar from the very back to the front.

Maya hates the fact that the work is so damn familiar, almost like when she would clean the chapels, but with less vomit and piss. Familiarity makes the work easy, it doesn't change how boring it is though. Moxxi finds herself beginning to feel lazy as Maya dashes from one end of the place to the other various bottles of antibacterial this and that in her hands.

With a huff Moxxi begins agitatedly shoving various bottles onto the shelves and into the fridges she keeps under the bar. For a moment the sound of Mayas footsteps thumping across the floor stops. A moment later Moxxie finds her standing hunched over the mop bucket, frozen in place staring at a particular image on the wall. After a moment Maya places the mop down on the edge of the bucket and takes a much closer look at the image.

Sitting in the frame is a much younger Mordecai standing beside the uppermost stage of the under dome. It was the victor circle. His hands are curled into slight fists,hanging at his sides. His glare is apparent even though the upper portion of his face is hidden beneath the mask, the way his mouth is pursed into a thin line rather gives him away. So angry even with blood wing sitting right there on his shoulder.

Beside this image is another image. One that strikes a nerve in Maya. The pair of them sitting together in a corner booth at this very bar, the mask was gone and instead there sat a wide grin. His green eyes seemed to shimmer with his excitement, his arm slung over Moxxi's shoulder. The way she looked there in his embrace, her smile so bright it seemed to outshine her makeup, here in this image. Moxxi was beautiful, more so than in the fliers on the boxes and the more scandalous images Marcus kept hidden from the public view. Her gloved hand was on his chest, over his heart. As Maya stares at this, she wonders if Moxxi broke it on purpose.

"I forgot about those..."

Maya looks over to Moxxi, a look of cold indifference. On her face is no sign of judgment or disdain. Or anything at all. It makes Moxxi flinch, that kind of look is one that's never been set on her before. She's always been able to stir up emotions of some sort in anyone she comes across. Maya simply returns to mopping the floors, albeit more slowly as Moxxi pauses to look at the pictures for a moment herself. She looks at the frozen flashback with a longing she thought she'd rid herself of, the small smile quickly turns to a jagged frown.

Moxxie whips the other image off the wall and marches away, but the sound of glass shattering on the bottom of the trash can echoes through the bar. Even so, on the wall is marking where the images once where, small squares where the wallpaper remains bright against the otherwise washed out colors of the bar.

Maya returns to the front of the bar after the floors and windows shine, Moxxi sets down the last bottle on the very top shelf. She turns around and finds Maya just looking at her, not with curiosity. Her expression is impassive and unreadable, it bothers Moxxi endlessly. Without meaning to do it her thin painted on eyebrows dart downward disapprovingly.

"you can go, you've done enough."

Maya sets the mop against the bar before walking without even collecting payment for the few hours of work. The door slams shut behind her, she doesn't look back. In her mind there's nothing really there, not anymore.

The door closes louder than she intended it to, Moxxi huffs and turns the three deadbolts in place. She walks around the place taking the chairs down and finds herself staring the wall, where she took the pictures down. A spot of crisp clear bright colors where the images where, she finds herself glaring angrily. A fury she didn't know was even there wells up so she snatches a large glass ashtray off one of the tables and flings it at the wall.

"FUCK YOU! YOU DID THIS! IT'S YOUR FAULT! **YOURS!**"

Though it is muffled her voice leaks through under the door and through the cracks in the windows, it rattles a few people out of their hunger induced stupor. Maya hears it and finds herself riddled with inquiries that run through her mind for only a moment before she blocks them out.


End file.
